Barkdull Bowers
Barkdull Bowers was a National Alliance politician and soldier who served as the Commander of the Orion Armed Forces from 67 to 76. She previously served in the Moynihan government as Foreign Affairs Minister and Defense Minister, and as the Director of the Foveaux Intelligence Agency under Chancellors Maladene, Moynihan, Titan, Holt, and Noah. Military and intelligence career After graduating from the National University of Southern Island with concentrations in political and strategic studies in 32, Bowers joined the Orion Armed Forces. She briefly served as a pilot for the National Sky Force, but found a niche as an intelligence analyst and field agent. She showed canny political instincts and was quickly recruited by the Armed Forces Governance Commission to serve as a military-civilian intelligence liaison to the Foveaux Intelligence Agency. Bowers caught the attention of then-Director Langley Caldwell, and began serving as Caldwell's Deputy Chief of Staff. After Caldwell's ten-year term ended in 41, Chancellor Durant Gordon appointed Ardoin Guerney as her replacement. Though Guerney offered to keep Bowers on, she declined, returning to the Commission, where she began serving as Assistant Director of Military Intelligence. Stockard Maladene's election in 47 returned Caldwell loyalists to power in the intelligence community, and Caldwell herself was named Ambassador to Gaullis. At Caldwell's invitation, Bowers joined the Orionian embassy as its chief intelligence officer that year. In 49, QQQ, the Minister for Defense, brought Bowers to the Maladene government as a special counselor on intelligence for the ministry. Immediately following Caldwell's unexpected death in 50, Chancellor Maladene named Bowers as Caldwell's replacement as Ambassador. Director of Fovi In 51, when Fovi Director Guerney's term came to an end, Maladene opted not to appoint her to another ten-year term. Instead, Maladene turned to Bowers, who had become a trusted intelligence advisor at this point. Given Bowers' deep level of experience in different intelligence roles, especially in spite of her relative youth, she was the obvious choice to lead Fovi. Just a year later, Maladene would step down amid an internal party revolt, and Justice Minister Jennings Moynihan was inaugurated as Chancellor. During their tenure in the Maladene government, Moynihan and Bowers had developed a warm, intimate relationship. Moynihan trusted Bowers immensely, and offered to name her Minister for Defense. But Bowers thoroughly enjoyed her work as Fovi Director, and declined the offer. Secretly, she was worried that Moynihan wouldn't win re-election in 55, and she wanted to hold onto her tenured position. Indeed, a close election in 55 resulted in Moynihan narrowly losing to Ranburne Titan, an experienced veteran of the military and intelligence communities. Titan had served on the Armed Forces Governance Commission while Bowers was an intelligence analyst, and the two respected each other. Titan, too, offered to name Bowers as her Minister for Defense, but Bowers once again declined. The assassination of Titan just a few years later rocked the intelligence community. Though Fovi had long suspected that Cheissian terrorist groups were planning an attack in Orion, there was no indication that they were planning to assassinate the Chancellor. The attack's lack of warning, as well as the fact that no known terrorist groups claimed responsibility for the attack troubled Bowers, who suspected that there was an alternative explanation. After opening a joint investigation with the National Agency for Investigation, Bowers began to suspect that Bonner Holt, Titan's Vice-Chancellor and successor, was responsible for the attack. She shared her fears with Moynihan, who passed those concerns on to Carlisle Noah, the Vice-Chancellor and Holt's chief opponent within their party. Bowers began monitoring Holt closely, and was soon inducted into Noah's internal opposition committee. As the investigation began to close on Holt, Bowers intercepted communications from the remnant of the Cheissian government: they were promising safe harbor to Holt if she could manage to arrive in the country. Bowers received authorization from an intelligence court for a wiretap on all of Holt's phones. She was notified one morning by her analysts that Holt was planning to flee later that day, so she convened Moynihan and Noah. A special military-grade force within Fovi was activated, and Bowers ultimately stopped Holt's plane on the tarmac, and arrested her for the assassination of Titan. She testified before the National Assembly on the need for heightened intelligence measures, and drafted legislation to enhance Fovi's power that ultimately passed. Bowers' leadership and intuition during the crisis earned her national plaudits, and pundits speculated that she was planning to challenge RRR for leadership of the National Alliance. For the third time in several years, she was offered the opportunity to serve as Minister for Defense, this time by Noah. She once again declined, and kept a low profile in anticipation of the election. Minister for Defense and Foreign Affairs Shortly after Moynihan's landslide win in the 58 election, she asked Bowers to join her government as Minister for Defense. This time, approaching the end of her term and confident in Moynihan's political strength, she enthusiastically accepted. A member of the Rally for Orion's National Vote Slate in the National Assembly declined to take her seat after the election, and Bowers was nominated as her replacement. Because Bowers remained a member of the National Alliance, her representation of the Rally had to be approved by the party's executive committee, which it did for the first time in its history. Following Moynihan's 61 re-election, she asked Bowers to serve as Minister for Foreign Affairs while also serving as Defense Minister. Bowers continued serving in both roles until the 64 election, when she stepped down as Minister for Defense to focus on her foreign affairs duties. Commander of the Armed Forces Several months before the 67 election, Carlisle Noah resigned as Commander of the Orion Armed Forces. As was custom for Chancellors, Moynihan announced that she would submit a recommendation to the Armed Forces Governance Commission. Though Moynihan was initially opposed to Bowers leaving the government, she recognized that Bowers was the most-qualified candidate for the position. The Chancellor formally recommended that the Commission elect Bowers as its next Commander, which it unanimously did. Bowers' decade-long tenure as Commander saw continued military investments in Gaullis and record-breaking arms sales to the Gaullisian government. Bowers opened two new military bases in Gaullis, and covertly worked with YYY, the Fovi Director, to fund the election campaign of the Gaullisan opposition party, which explicitly campaigned on a closer military alliance with the Orionian government. After the incumbent president was defeated in 75, she publicly accused Bowers of orchestrating her defeat. Bowers' next few visits to Orionian military bases in Gaullis were met with violent protests, and the Gaullisian government privately informed her that public opinion had dramatically shifted against her. Moynihan continued to support Bowers, both publicly and privately, and urged her to stay on Commander. However, the Governance Commission voted to remove Bowers from her position in 76, against Moynihan's wishes. Moynihan retaliated by directing Annett Swift, the Minister for Justice, to investigate alleged corruption in the Commission, leading to several resignations. With Moynihan's new appointments to the Commission, Bowers had enough votes to get her job back, but she declined. After politics After being fired as Commander, Bowers joined Calvert Strategies, the world's largest military contractor, as its Vice-President for Government Relations. She lectured occasionally at Archipelago National University and served as an informal advisor to Moynihan. The Chancellor's surprise decision to step down as Chancellor in 82 led to many prominent Rally politicians to urge Bowers to switch parties and run to lead the party. Bowers considered doing so, but ultimately deferred to Swift, who was ultimately elected and continued to seek Bowers' advice on foreign affairs.